


sing out this song (and i'll be there by your side)

by crescentted19



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Bobcaygeon, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Song Lyrics, Song fic, The Tragically Hip, song prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-13 06:27:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18935287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescentted19/pseuds/crescentted19
Summary: A songfic dedicated to Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, based on the lyrics of the song 'Bobcaygeon' by The Tragically Hip.It was meant to be a one off thing. A happy accident. But he couldn't get her off his mind.





	1. Coulda been the wine

_I left your house this morning_

_'Bout a quarter after nine_

_Coulda been the Willie Nelson_

_Coulda been the wine_

 

_

 

Scott watched as Tessa leaned her head back so that it touched her chair’s back. Her feet were in his lap, knees bent between them as they sat at her white kitchen table. In her right hand, she clutched a large glass of red wine - an Australian Shiraz. Jordan had gifted her a case when she moved back to Toronto, and they were still making their way through it, slowly but surely. Her laugh rang out, full and clear as a bell and filling the room. He started laughing too. He couldn’t help it. He would do anything because of Tessa.

 

Twangy guitar strings snapped away in the background. He clasped an ankle in each hand, moving them from side to side with each raise of his shoulders.

 

“On the road again…” he crooned, face up to the ceiling and putting on a performance as if it were he singing over the track. She laughed again, then, her eyes closing in mirth and clutching the edge of her seat, as if she was scared that she would topple off either side. She didn’t have to worry. Scott always had her.

 

“What a voice you got there, Moir.” she says, a sarcastic lilt in her voice as she peeked over the rim of her glass at him, taking another sip. There was red wine staining her mouth dark purple, but she didn’t care. He wanted to wipe it off, but left it in place. This was the Tessa he loved the most; slightly tousled and perfectly imperfect, the one who would invite him over for dinner but not cook anything, preferring to sit and watch or dance around as he inevitably made something edible. Her hair was up in that messy topknot he and Igor used to call the ‘dish’, tendrils falling around her face, having been loosened from her movement and topping off her gently inebriated look.

 

“What can I say, Virtch,” he began, “I am a man of many talents.”

 

He said this with a flourish from his shoulders, slurring slightly from his own wine as he punctuated his words with a small squeeze to her feet.

 

“Oh, yeah?” she responded, raising her eyebrows incredulously.

 

He widened his eyes, appearing affronted. “Have you never heard my Gangsta’s Paradise?”

 

She tilted her head to the side slightly. “I must have missed that one. Slept right through Chiddy’s engagement party. Or Danny’s wedding. Or _Charlie’s_ wedding. Or that bar we went to Sunday night.” She shook her head as if astonished. “Huh.”

 

“Ha, ha.” he replied teasingly, obviously not truly offended by her. She answered in true form by laughing into her wine glass, eyes still hooked on his. His fingers rubbed gentle circles into her ankles, moving up her shins.

 

“Big day tomorrow, eh?” he asked, briefly abandoning her right leg to drain his wine glass before returning to his administrations. Tessa was wearing pyjama shorts and a tank top, so inches of her creamy pale skin was on display, freckles decorating her collarbones and sternum. He felt her tense up - more mentally than physically. Years of being the person who held her hand the most meant that he could place her emotions through the most subtle shift of breath, eyebrow quirk, set of jaw. It meant their arguments were monumental, but he wouldn’t change it for the deep connection it gave them.

 

“Mmhm.” she replied, spinning the stem of her glass so that the deep claret liquid sloshed up the sides in a vortex, undulating and disappearing over and over.

 

“You nervous?”

 

He didn’t need to ask. Of course he didn’t. This was _Tessa_ , the girl who had been at his side for over twenty years. But he felt the need to, because he knew that pushing her would close her off even if she didn’t mean to.

 

“Yeah.” she said quietly, fingers still clutching the thin piece of glass in what might have been the only physical giveaway of her trepidation to anyone who didn’t know her the way he did. His hands massaged at her shins and calves, where they still bore the evidence of all of her physical pain all those years ago. They had nearly driven them apart. How _stupid_. “You know I’m an introvert. I keep thinking about all the things that could go wrong…”

 

“Hey,” Scott began, as if he were scolding her. He took her hand in his right, while raising her chin up to look at him again with the other. She was smiling, but it was her media smile. The one that never quite reached her eyes. The one that tried to hide things from him, but never worked, and they both knew it. “You’re gonna be fine. You’ve done it before, and you kill it. You always do.”

 

She nodded her head within his palm, and he brushed her cheek gently. He saw something in her eyes soften, before they fixed on his with an intensity that made his breath catch. He couldn’t look away; they were the colour of sea foam, reaching out to him with a siren’s call, drawing him closer and closer.

 

“What’s the time?” he asked suddenly, leaning back quickly and clearing his throat. He was strangely relieved to see that she looked disappointed. With a quick peek at her phone, her eyes widening in surprise and a small high pitched noise emanating from her, she looked up, panicked.

 

“Two-thirty. I’m so sorry, Scott, I know you have to be at the shop tomorrow, I really didn’t mean to keep you this late!” she said, flustered, getting up unsteadily and tucking her chair under the table. Even with two glasses of wine in her, she still loved neatness. Amidst her miniature frenzy, the song changed from the fast-paced country to a familiar piano chord pattern. He felt himself stand up, walking towards Tessa and taking her in his arms.

 

“It’s okay, Kiddo.” he said into her hair, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. She wrapped her arms around his chest, placing her chin on his chest, like they used to do before every single skate. Their breathing soon synced up, and he could feel Tessa relaxing sleepily into him. That wine had hit her hard, as always. He should have known.

 

“Dance with me.” he says quietly, waiting for her response. 

 

“Okay.”

 

They twirl around the kitchen counter and the living, struggling through the steps of Stay but laughing the whole way through, before finally ending in a kneeling position on the ground similar to the ending of their Long Time Running program. Her hand was placed over his heart, his fisted in her hair, their foreheads touching as they breathed deeply in time with each other. The song was long over, having moved on to another song in her playlist on shuffle, but they didn’t move.

 

“You could stay, if you’d like.” she said nervously, expectantly. He hadn’t anticipated that she would break first, but he finds himself nodding.

 

“Yeah, that would be great, thanks, T. I’ll get the couch made up.”

 

He started to stand himself back up, offering his hand to Tess to help her up, but instead she grabbed on and stayed on the floor while looking at him with large eyes clouded with fear, but behind that a deeper flame that burned with some internal defiance he couldn’t place.

 

“No.” she objected, still holding on, “ _stay_.”


	2. I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time

_When I left your house this morning_

_It was a little after nine_

_It was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations_

_Reveal themselves, one star at time_

 

_

 

When he woke up, their legs were tangled together. There was light streaming in gently through a crack in the blind, illuminating specks of dust that spiralled through the air. He tightened his arm around Tessa, pulling her closer to his chest. She hummed a little bit, sleepily and contently, wiggling herself backwards as she curled up even further under the covers so only the top of her head poked out. 

 

_Tessa_. His best friend. His partner. The one who supported him for two decades, who stuck by him, who he had vowed to _never_ have a relationship with. Or do anything… like they had done the night before. He feels his cheeks heat up as he remembers - in perfect clarity - the events of the early morning. Would it be awkward now? How would he be able to carry on considering her his business partner, his bandmate, now that they had done something so irreparable?

 

“Hey,” he heard, her voice scratchy and low from sleep. She leaned her head over her shoulder to look at him, and a small smile grew on her face, eyes sparkling despite the fact that she had just woken up.

 

“Hey,” he replied in a whisper. Their eyes were still locked as Tessa leaned up to give him a short, chaste kiss. He kissed her back, but his shoulders were still tense.

 

“Good morning.” she breathed, turning over so that she was lying next to him, still smiling that truthful and joyful smile that made his heart hurt. He looked up so that he could tear his eyes away from her and caught sight of the alarm clock in the process.

 

“T, it’s nine o’clock already!” he said, panicked. When he had come over for dinner the previous night, he had only anticipated staying until eleven at the latest. They both had things to do that day; he was due back in Montréal the next day so he needed to drive home, and Tess had her new brand deal announcement. Of course, they had got a little… distracted the previous night, so they were now running on approximately five hours each, and running severely behind schedule.

 

“What?!” Tessa exclaimed, jumping up out of bed and almost falling over in the process from getting her foot caught in the covers before Scott quickly reached out and steadied her. His hands were placed on her hips, allowing him to look up at the pale expanse of her back dotted with constellations of auburn freckles that she always tried to cover up. His breath caught in his throat slightly as he followed the line of her spine up to her unkempt hair, and as she turned around their eye lines were perfectly even as he knelt on the mattress. She looked at him, and her brow furrowed slightly as she took in his expression. Clearly she had seen something she hadn’t wanted.

 

“Careful.” he said, somewhat husky after the unexpected and accidental show. Tessa gave a tiny, caught smile, quickly rushing to the corner of the room where her satin grey robe hung neatly on the back of the closet door, tugging it on and tying it loosely around her waist. She looked back at Scott, who was still frozen as he watched her through slitted eyes, jaw clenching slightly. One of his tells. He always thought it stopped him from seeing what he truly felt. It never worked.

 

“Uh, so… we’ve probably got to get going.” said Tessa, slightly unnerved by the scrutiny of his gaze and the growing awkward tension between them. She didn’t know _why_ it was happening, after he’d chosen to stay the night before, or what she could do to stop it, but she hated it. Her anxiety rose steadily as she bustled around the room, gathering Scott’s discarded clothes from the floor and depositing them on the bed. Scott nodded his head almost robotically - a quick dip of his chin and back up - and took his clothing wordlessly, dressing quickly and silently. Tessa stood at the foot of the bed with her arms crossed, not looking directly at him, but eyes darting around the room. It had seemed like such a _good_ idea last night - then again, last night, she was about a bottle of wine deep, so clearly her reasoning functions had been clouded somewhat. Now, she could see their strong partnership breaking away like a shell right in front of her eyes. _So much for marriage counselling,_ she thought.

 

As he pulled on his T-shirt, their eyes met again. There, they both saw a tinge of regret, as well as longing and something deeper that was impossible to put a name on. She cleared her throat, and left the room first, leading him down the stairs to the entryway. She reassumed her tight, inward body language (he didn’t need her psychology degree to see _that_ ), looking up at him with a look that was clearly an attempt at casual, but was spoiled somewhat by her furrowed brow. _I did that,_ thought Scott.

 

He was just about to leave, parting with a stilted wave, before Tessa caught his wrist tightly, dropping it quickly as if she had been burned and her eyes wide as if surprised at her own actions.

 

“…Are we okay?” she asked quietly, and Scott felt his heart crack just a tiny bit.

 

He nodded his head, feeling resistance deep within him that screamed out to cry, get angry, get drunk, _anything_ to avoid having to lose Tess again that inevitably comes as a consequence of lying to her. He knew that everything in his expression would betray him, so he wrapped her in a hug and rested his chin on her shoulder. He felt her hands come up to hesitantly rest on his shoulder blades. They stood that way for a few minutes, breathing deeply, in tune with each other and finding a strained synchronicity, both cherishing that one moment as if it were their last.

 

_

 

 

**Danny:** Y _ou did WHAT???_

 

**Charlie:** _Scottie, you done fucked up_

 

Scott exhaled heavily, his hand clenching into a fist around his phone. When he had left Tessa’s house that morning at nine fifteen, he just _had_ to tell someone about the events of the previous night. He thought that out of everyone, his brothers would understand the complex relationship he and Tessa had built up over twenty-one years. Apparently not, because here they were, yelling at him via text message as he packed to go back to Montréal. He flopped down onto his bed, stomach first, and groaned into his pillow. He _knew_ that he had messed up, but to have it drilled into him by both brothers (who seemed to actually agree on this matter, for once in their lives) made him realised just how bad he had made things between him and Tess.

 

**Scott:** _I know._

 

Then, almost immediately:

 

**Scott:** I’m gonna lose her.

 

His stomach jumped into his throat as his anxiety rose higher and higher. What he wouldn’t give for a stiff drink right now. Damn Montréal, damn the seven hour drive, and damn his stupid wine drunk sex brain!

 

**Charlie:** _Did you guys like talk about it?_

 

**Scott:** _We didn’t need to._

 

**Scott:** _It was like we didn't know each other._

 

Scott threw his phone down onto the bedspread as he continued shoving clothes haphazardly into his suitcase. His eyes clouded as he heard his phone chime with a notification, but he focused on his task so hard that soon his entire bag was filled with crumpled shirts, some still on the hanger. His room was a sight to see. Breathing heavily, traitorous tears pricking at his eyes, he fisted his hands into the cloth he was holding. When he looked down, he saw that he was holding one of his old costumes; a white shirt with gentle ruffles parallel to the buttons on the front, the collar folded over just slightly around the neck. The Mahler shirt.

 

With a muffled shout, he wrenched his arms apart, creating a large rip running diagonally from the left shoulder to midway down the garment. Breathing quick, shallow breaths, he looked down at what he had done with disgust, disbelief, panic. It was too much.

 

He zipped up his suitcase, uncaring of its contents, and grabbed his phone from the bed. He needed to leave, right now. One text message lit up the screen.

 

**Danny:** _Come on, you guys are forever. You both know that._

 

Pounding down his stairs, tossing his suitcase in the back of his car and pulling out of his driveway in a sharp reverse, he let one singular tear fall down his cheek, mourning what could have been.

 

_

 

The drive to Montréal was long. Agonisingly so. Seven and a half hours of solitude, confined in the tiny space with just his deepest, darkest thoughts on loop accompanied by some shitty music from the only radio station that serviced this far out in the countryside. Right now, Selena Gomez or some other Disney child star was crooning out of his front speakers; ‘ _if I could do it all again, I know I’d go back to you_ ’.

 

Groaning, he hit the radio power button with great force so that the only sounds he could hear were the tires on the uneven tarmac. The sun had begun setting, so the sky was filled with salmon pinks, oranges and midnight blues. _Tess would love it_ , he thought without warning. It was as if someone had planted it in his brain, forcing him to think of _her_. Looking across the horizon before him, laying just beyond the empty motorway, he watched the colours deepen and darken. Slowly, tiny pinpricks of light began to emerge across the night sky. Eyes widening in wonder, and with a small intake of breath, Scott started to form shapes. Nature’s connect-the-dots, Tessa had called them when they were young and naïve, staring up from the bed of his pick-up truck Danny had passed down to him for his sixteenth birthday. He laughed, almost subconsciously, about the fact that almost every familiar thing he saw had a connection, a memory, to Tessa in some form or other. 

 

He didn’t know what spurred it - some sleep deprivation, or cabin fever, maybe - but before he knew it the car was filled with the steady dial tone that reverberated tinnily. The sound was deep, and seemed to rattle his very soul as he counted each one.

 

_Beep, beep._

_Beep, beep._

_Beep._

 

They stopped suddenly. She always picked up the phone on the third ring. But instead of her usual “ _hey, kiddo_ ”, there three sharp tones that told him she had hung up. 

 

“ _Hey, sorry I can’t take your call right now, but -“_

 

_“But she’s too busy being fabulous, right, Virtch?”_

 

A muffled thump. The sound of her hitting his shoulder in annoyance and humour.

 

“ _I’ll try and get back to you as soon as possible._ ”

 

” _Bye!_ ”

 

His heart hurt as he heard the answering message that he’d only ever heard once before - as they were recording it back in Michigan, on a rainy afternoon.

 

With a shuddering breath, he said the first words that came out of his mouth, all cannonballing together before he could stop.

 

“Hey, T. I hope your TV thing went well. Couldn’t catch it, sorry, too busy driving.” The words felt foreign, trying to appear as if everything was normal when clearly it wasn’t. “I’ve got about, uh… five and a half hours left here. By myself.” A short pause. “I forgot how clear the sky was, all the way out here at the Lakes. I saw the constellations - those ones you pointed out to me, back when we were young and, uh… I thought of you, I guess.” He breathed in deeply, exhaling in a mirthless laugh. “I’m so sorry, T. I shouldn’t have done that last night. You know I love you, and I’ll make it up to you. You mean so much to me and I can’t- … I can’t lose you. Not again. So, uh, please call me back at some point, you know, when you can.” His voice wavered as his breathing became irregular. “I miss you. Goodnight, Tutu.”

 

As he sat frozen in the driver’s seat, he heard the answering machine click off. He pulled over to the side of the road, putting the hazard lights on with a shaking hand, and sobbed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorryyyyy! :)
> 
> I swear Scott will get happier soon!
> 
> Again, I'm @virtchmoir97 on Twitter. Come yell at me!

**Author's Note:**

> My first exam is over, so this is a bit of a celebratory treat to myself! Eeeeek!
> 
> Trying something new here - my other fics have been from Tessa's perspective, but I wanted this one to be from Scott's (especially as he loves The Hip)
> 
> I absolutely love this song, and I feel it fits T&S so well. Let me know what you think - I love comments!
> 
> Follow me on Twitter to see me obsess over everything they do! @virtchmoir97
> 
> Lots of love, Ted x


End file.
